Prison Performing Arts is a seventeen-year-old, multi-discipline, literacy and performing arts program that serves incarcerated adults and children.  The organization is dedicated to enriching the lives of adults and young people in the Missouri criminal and juvenile justice systems.  The organization fosters individual and social change by providing current and former inmates opportunities to participate in the performing arts as artists, students and audience members.  Quite often, the prisoners perform Shakespearean tragedies.

I wanted to give a plug for this fine organization, because I have spoken with people involved with the criminal justice system who have nothing but praise for the accomplishments of PPA. For those in the St. Louis area, Ira Glass, host of public radio’s This American Life,  will share his views on life and art at 8:00pm, Saturday, September 27, 2008, at the Pageant in The Loop.  The show is a benefit for Prison Performing Arts.   Glass will be joined onstage will be members of Prison Performing Arts’ Alumni Theatre Company, which is made up of actors who worked with Prison Performing Arts while incarcerated.

AN EVENING WITH IRA GLASS, to Benefit Prison Performing Arts
The Pageant, 6161 Delmar,  Saturday, Sept 27, 2008, 8:00pm
Visit ticketmaster.com or The Pageant Box Office (314-726-6161).